City Dwellers: Contemporary Art from India

Aug 30 2014 – Feb 16 2015

Seattle Art Museum

Third Floor Galleries

Bollywood movie culture, venerated politicians, religious traditions, and art historical icons all contribute to the myriad of influences in contemporary urban Indian culture. The artists in this exhibition pay tribute to this multitude even as they introduce elements of irony, introspection, and critique.

Through their photography and sculpture, the artists negotiate diverse ideas and influences on contemporary Indian society—Hindu mythology, Bollywood movies, Indian and western art, and icons of everyday life in a global market economy. Many of the works are influenced as much by popular movie culture and the use of digital technology as by the conventions of religious ritual and street processions, traditional theater, and dance.

Come see the colorful, contradictory, and complex India of today through the works of some of the country’s leading artists.

This photograph​ from Dhruv Malhotra’s Sleepers, a series of sleepers in public spaces— individuals and groups who camp in improvised and makeshift arrangements on benches, parks or construction sites—capture an everyday reality. As living space is limited and expensive in metropolitan areas, vast segments of society cannot afford an apartment. Apart from economics, proximity to a work site, attempts to escape the stifling heat of indoor dwellings, and the desire or duty to protect property are reasons why many migrant workers, street vendors, and laborers find alternative nightly accommodations on park benches, construction sites, or other convenient locations.

Most of [Balasubramaniam’s] recent sculptural works, particularly those cast from his body, are rendered in pure white, the absence of color accentuating the pieces and imbuing them with an austere beauty.”

”

–Minhazz Majumdar

Alwar Balasubramaniam was born in Chennai (1971) and is now based in Bangalore. In his art, he examines the boundaries of the self and the division between the visible and invisible, as well as a deep philosophical interest in the universality of the human experience. In recent sculptures, Balasubramaniam has used his own body to make sculptural casts, as in Untitled (Self in Progress). The work is psychologically suggestive but also reverberates with the Hindu and Buddhist belief in reincarnation, and with it, a spiritual development, a self in progress.

The Ordinary Becomes Extraordinary (and Vice Ver​sa)​​

A ubiquitous mode of transportation in India, the scooter’s fuel efficiency, maneuverability in congested streets and greater affordability makes it a valuable alternative to a car. A coveted item, especially among individuals and families of lower economic backgrounds, the scooter is here glorified by artist Valay Shende and transformed into a glimmering icon made of gold-plated disks.

Debanjan Roby’s India Shining V (Gandhi with iPod)—shows him listening to iPod tunes, a jarring image considering Gandhi’s humility and rejection of worldly goods. This sculpture transports the historic figure of the political leader, who dedicated his life to end colonial rule and identified with the poorest citizens of his country, to a glitzy commercialized present, asking viewers to reevaluate the country's values and Gandhi’s legacy.

Avatars: When Worlds Converge​​​

av·a·tar (Oxford English Dictionary)

Hindu Mythology: The descent of a deity to the earth in an incarnate form. (For example: Lord Krishna is the eighth incarnation of the god Vishnu in Hinduism.)

Computing and Science Fiction: A graphical representation of a person or character in a computer-generated environment.​​​

Artist Vivek Vilasini approaches similar themes from a different angle: through his work, he examines the social structures of contemporary Indian society and the competition between cultural tradition and globalization. For his large-scale photograph Include Me Out II, Vilasini digitally altered an image of a gopura—an ornately decorated tower at the entrance of a South Indian Hindu temple—replacing the traditional carvings of deities, devotees and demons with everyday individuals of all walks of life, including the artist himself, his mother, and even several western tourists.

In Nandini Valli Muthiah’s series Definitive Reincarnate, the blue-skinned god Krishna is posed in a series of modern urban environments, including a crowded street, an American convertible car, a posh hotel room. The images starkly juxtapose traditional Hindu iconography and mythology with contemporary urban life, introducing a note of introspection and raising questions about the place these traditions can find in modern India.

The Overdose triptych, a surreal and fantastic scene, is constructed with mythological figures, icons from European and Indian art history, pop culture heroes, and everyday people. Although the comparisons are surreal and humorous, they reflect to some degree the extraordinary contrasts and myriad influences that inform contemporary life in India. Artist Manjunath Kamath lives and works in New Delhi.

Kolkata (formerly known by the British colonial name, Calcutta) has undergone profound changes as a result of the country’s increasing globalization. Dayanita Singh photographed her series, Ladies of Calcutta, in the city over the course of a decade. Photographed in private homes, the upper-middle class women and their families express their attitude towards the cultural changes of the day in their generational relationships, their clothing, the decoration of their homes, and their manner of posing before Singh’s camera.

The artists Pushpamala N. and British artist Clare Arni are also interested in photography as a medium for critically scrutinizing female role models and stereotypes. The artists draw heavily from the history and traditions of Indian art and mythology, as well as colonial and cinematic Bollywood traditions. Each work within their series Native Types—from the larger project Native Women of South India: Manners and Customs—is a performance and restages an existing image—from paintings, magazi​ne images, and photographs, for example. The performance of existing images is crucial to Pushpamala N: “One is inside the image, not just outside, looking.” By enacting and embodying the characters in these preexisting images from photographs to paintings to popular culture imagery, the artists hope to raise questions about “the histories of female representation, high and low art, ethnography and ideas of race and caste, colonialism and Indian modernity—and the history of modern Indian art and photography itself.”

​Disappearing Ways of Life​​​​​

The widespread use of mobile phones, that are now affordable enough to be used by broad segments of Indian society, is beginning to make India’s traditional manned phone kiosks obsolete, and with them an economy and a way of life gradually disappears. The so-called STD booths—short for “subscriber trunk dialing”—were established in the early 1990s and were of equal service to migrant workers, locals, and tourists. In Jitish Kallat's panoramic photograph
Artist Making Local Call, the artist himself poses in one of the ubiquitous public call offices that are scattered throughout the city and the country.

Artist Subodh Gupta transforms objects of Indian everyday life—from Mumbai taxis to metal lunch boxes—into captivating sculptures. In his photographs he similarly singles out iconic situations or objects to comment on the construction of national and cultural identities. “All these things were part of the way I grew up,” says Gupta. “They are used in the rituals and ceremonies that were part of my childhood. Indians either remember them from their youth, or they want to remember them.” Gupta’s remark is insightful, as the Indian metropolitan life has been undergoing radical changes—today the upscale Indian cars of old, such as the Ambassador, are increasingly getting competition from international brands, and small specialty shops are under pressure from popular malls—a new phenomenon in India that is bringing Gupta’s childhood staples into sharp focus.

Zoroastrians first came to India from Persia in the 10th century. Fleeing persecution from Muslim groups, the religious minority first settled in the state of Gujarat (“Parsi” meaning “Persian” in Gujarati). Adaptable and economically successful, the group—with its distinct rituals and practices—has been dwindling in the last century and has its strongest base in Mumbai. Artist Sooni Taraporevala, who lives and works in Mumbai, describes her photographic series
Parsis: The Zoroastrians of India as a “visual journey” through the community over the course of 36 years.

Fun Fact: Taraporevala is also a screenwriter and wrote the screenplays for the movies Salaam Bombay, Mississippi Masala, and an adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel
The Namesake, all of which were directed by Taraporevala’s frequent collaborator Mira Nair.

Where the Artists Live and Work​​​​​​

Smartphone Audio TourUse your smartphone to tour
City Dwellers: Contemporary Art from India as well as
Pop Departures, now on view in the Wright Galleries for Modern and Contemporary Art on the third floor. This free smartphone audio tour features commentary by Catharina Manchanda, SAM’s Jon and Mary Shirley Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.

To download the app, search for STQRY in your app store and open the Seattle Art Museum story; or you can listen to the audio files below!